Horse Therapy?

Trying on a friends saddle...

Its quite amazing what the human body can adapt to. I watch my niece learning to walk... and actually learning to walk in general is a pretty tough feet even when you don't have added roadblocks to fight through like hypotonia (low muscle town) in her case; And, I"m truly amazed.

And, then I look at my own history and what I've overcome, and how my body has adapted to life's activities with out me really even realizing it.

There's a lot of similarities between my niece and I. We were both born premature. We were both born posteriorly (face up as apposed to the normal face down position).  We both had some abnormal muscle tone, and neither of us crawled. 30+ years ago they didn't have the medical knowledge they do today. It was labeled developmental delay because I was 10 weeks premie. I eventually caught up with my milestones, and aside from some fine motor issues due to week shoulder and girth muscles and some mild scoliosis that has affected overall body alignment,   I never really felt that I was different or that anything held me back.

Its funny that at almost 32 years of age horses and riding are forcing me to realize just how much the things I was born with have affected the way my body moves, and works. I've been in denial for a while... I'd had doctors ask me about back pain as an adult because apparently I am far enough out of alignment in my hips that it "should" be causing me some pain, and it became more apparent to me when my sister moved my feet into proper alignment to complete an exercise during a work out and I actually felt off balance standing correctly because I had become so used to standing incorrectly.

My riding lesson this week was just one more confirmation of just how much my body has incorrectly adapted itself to be able to do daily activities despite being out of alignment & having weaker muscles.

Because I want to start jumping more we've been trying different saddles on Rio. Riding in my dressage saddle I've felt slightly off center, and uneven in my stirrups despite the stirrups being very much even. I chalked it up to the fact the saddle needs to be reflocked and was sitting uneven. When I started riding in other saddles and realized the off balance feeling was not limited to my dressage saddle the thought popped into my head that perhaps I was sitting unevenly because of the way my hips are misaligned. When I pointed this out to my trainer she confirmed that I do tend to ride with more weight on one seat bone and let my right shoulder collapse in, sitting lower then the left shoulder. On that same right side I have much harder time keeping my leg position and heel down position required to have a good anchored seat in the saddle. When we work to the left I have a bad habit of picking up the wrong diagonal so much so that I know when I'm actually on the right diagonal because I feel out of sync with the horse's movements.... what an odd concept.

An even more interesting concept to me though, was how much my habits as a rider have affected Rio. He tends to favor my good side when we ride, and struggles more on the side that is more difficult for me. When the chiropractor adjusted him at one point last year she mentioned that he had more muscle development on one side of his back then the other. And, when we were trying on saddles they consistently fit better on one side over the other because of the amount of muscled development on each side, and the difference in his shoulder alignment. The more I look at it the more I realize these things are definitely not a coincidence.  He's developed in this way because of how I ride.

My trainer, of course was quick to point out that they use horses for physical therapy for exactly this reason. Their gait mimics natural walking movement for riders with more sever disabilities. It's going to take a lot of work to retrain my brain and muscles to ride in a correct position, but riding offers a really unique, and natural way of working on my issues that will only benefit me in every aspect of my life.  Having a personal trainer and doing some weight resistance training is also helping. Yes the horse is an expensive investment BUT, hey he's my councilor, and now he's my physical therapist as well.

I hope with all my heart my niece doesn't face anymore struggles in her life, that she achieves everything she wants in life... but that doesn't mean I won't use this to convince my sister to let me get her on a pony as soon as possible...